This application relates to the operation of separable slide fasteners, such as zippers, and relates in particular to techniques for facilitating the operation of such fasteners.
A separable zipper is used to join separable items, such as portions of a garment or other object. Such a zipper may be used on a jacket, sweater, vest or the like, and has two stringers, typically formed of a suitable fabric, and each carrying a row of interlocking elements, such as teeth. One row terminates at a stop member which has an aperture therein and, in one type of separable zipper, this aperture extends all the way through the stop member. The other row of interlocking elements terminates in a lug. A slider has a generally Y-shaped channel extending therethrough, the slider being captured on the first row of interlocking elements by receiving that row through one side of the Y-shaped channel.
To operate the zipper to a closed condition, the slider is moved to a terminal position against the stop member, wherein the stem of the Y-shaped channel aligns with the aperture in the stop member. Then the lug of the other stringer is inserted in the aperture formed by the other side of the Y-shaped channel in the slider and downwardly through the stem portion of the channel and into the aligned aperture of the stop member, pulling the other row of interlocking elements into the channel of the slider. Then, as the lug is held in the aperture of the stop member, the slider is moved upwardly away from the stop member, drawing the two rows of interlocking elements sequentially into interlocking engagement with each other, all in a well-known manner.
In some zippers, the stop member does not have an aperture therein. Instead, two sliders are provided, disposed in back-to-back arrangement on the one row of interlocking elements. To operate the zipper, the lower slider is moved to a terminal position against the stop member and the upper slider is moved against the lower slider. Then the lug of the other stringer is inserted in the apertures formed by the two sliders. When the upper slider is moved upwardly away from the lower slider, the two rows of interlocking elements are drawn into interlocking engagement with each other in the same manner as described above. However, in this case, the closed zipper can be opened from either end, by lowering the upper slider or raising the lower slider.
It is significant that, during insertion of the lug into the apertures, the slider must be held in its terminal position against the stop member or, in the two-slider zipper, the upper slider must be held against the lower slider while in its terminal position. This requires some manual dexterity and is often a difficult, and perhaps impossible, operation for persons with impaired dexterity, such as persons suffering from arthritis and the like. Efforts have heretofore been made to provide zipper arrangements which facilitate operation. However, such prior arrangements have all involved modifications to the zipper itself. Thus, in order to use such an arrangement, the user would have to purchase a garment or other object having such a modified zipper already installed thereon, or replace a standard zipper with the modified zipper design, which may be relatively expensive and inconvenient.